Category Archives: Cold Shipping

It is a delicate and sensitive affair to ship a cold chain considering the nature of the valuable materials as well as the samples. In most cases, people have to care about the overnight shipping, to buy and maintain dry ice, to pay charges for hazardous goods, to worry about the damage to the integrity of the cells and the sample, and to train the staff to meet the standards. Under normal circumstance, that was what it took to have your cold chain shipped, however, much has improved concerning technology, regulation, and management that have turned around the cold chain shipment business. Let us analyze some of the improvements that have revolutionized the entire process of cold chain shipping:

Improvements

Modern equipment

Long ago, the cold chain shipping firms used to buy dry ice to keep the temperature of the ship during the transit. Nevertheless, this method has proven unreliable and exposes the cell, and samples to risks associated with temperature excursions. Today, most advanced facilities use liquid nitrogen as the refrigerant in which case, the dry vapor shipper absorbs all the liquid nitrogen fully into porous foam inside the shipper.

Consequently, the carrier then can release the liquid nitrogen slowly inside the container to sustain the cryogenic temperature of more than -180°C making the temperature constant throughout the trip up to twenty-one days. It works better than other temperature control solutions for shipment such as dry ice thereby eliminating OD temperature excursions virtually.

Certification

Another requirement for the successful shipping of cold chain is the compliance with regulations. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has put in place regulatory demands that shippers should meet before shipping both non-infectious clinical samples and infectious substances (UN3373). The best shippers have non-hazardous shipment facilities that have met these requirements, have received their accreditation, and do not need to have handling instructions or unique labels. The best-in-class tools used complies with the non-hazardous shipment requirements from IATA because they are essential in maintaining the cryogenic temperatures below -150°C for about over twenty-one days to offer the stability of temperature necessary for cold chain shipment. Without this certification, you will have to part with the additional cost including hazardous shipping charges.

Sound management

The management should be comprehensive that involves planning, coordination, and execution of the processing while monitoring every phase to take corrective measures and avoid losses. It implies that the shipping facility should have the ability to handle the logistics process from the beginning to the last point.

It enables the process to be smooth, stress-free, and convenient for those shipping their cold chain. The success of this sound management lies with the experienced workforce as well as the strong partnership.